“… anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:27

AND “…any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. Lu 14:33

Following Jesus is serious business.

Following Jesus requires us to exercise our faith regularly.

It requires us to work at our Christianity every day.

ILLUS: One minister was once asked if a certain man named John, belonged to the Church.

The preacher’s reply was, "No, although his name does appear on the roll."

The first man was a little confused and asked the difference between belonging to the church, and having his name on the roll.

"It’s like this," the minister explained,

• "John’s time does not belong to the Church.

• His energy and affections don’t belong to the Church.

• And not one penny of John’s money belongs to the Church."

To be perfectly honest, I don’t think there’s an ounce of John that really belongs to Jesus.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who WANT to go to heaven with Jesus - but hardly an ounce of them belongs to Him. And Jesus tells us these folks aren’t worthy of Him and are NOT His disciples because that’s their mindset.

Now, why should Jesus be so adamant about this?

Why should He care if we’re don’t give ourselves to Him as completely as we should?

Well, two reasons:

The 1st reason is because of how important our Christianity is to Him.